Dr. Licthenthaler has been a prolific researcher: Web of Science (the people who compile SSCI) lists 45 published articles, 42 of them from 2007-2012. Three were in A journals (AMJ, Org Sci, SMJ) and nine from the top speciality journals (ETP, ICC, JBV, JPIM and RP), although five of these 12 articles were later retracted.

Some of his work is highly cited, leaving many researchers in a quandary: if there is a relevant article, how would I know if it will be retracted in the future? As someone actively publishing, reviewing and editing OI research, for me this is not a hypothetical question. So I downloaded 43 of the 45 articles (two were not available and inter-library loan is closed for Christmas) as well as two other articles listed by Google Scholar but not Web of Science.

Six of the eight retracted articles were about the licensing practices of European firms that utilize data gathered with the assistance of the Licensing Executives Society (LES). As the earlier retractedResearch Policy articles states, “We directly contacted all LES industry members in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. … 155 firms participated in the study, corresponding to a response rate of 37.6%.” (Lichtenthaler, 2009: 562). Other retracted articles mentioned 152 responses and four unretracted articles mention 154.

Twelve other Lichtenthaler articles (11 from WoS, a 12th from Google Scholar) mentioned the LES:

The retractedStrategic Management Journal article seems to use data that overlaps the LES sample. An additional three articles seem to also use data that overlaps LES but do not mention the sample by name:

Two Three other papers said they used a similar sampling frame, but selected smaller companies than those used in the other LES studies. As Lichtenthaler, Ulrich & Miriam Muethel (2012: 197) said in their JET-M article, “To avoid overlaps with earlier empirical studies (e.g., Lichtenthaler et al., 2010), we selected companies that are ranked on ranks 201–500 of the largest firms in terms of revenues in each of the following three industries: automotive, chemicals, and electronics.” These papers are

I have no reason to expect that any specific article will be retracted, but if a ninth article were to be retracted, I would assume it would come from one of these 17 18. Together with the eight retracted articles, that accounts for 25 26 articles of the 47 published articles.

The reasons announced for the retractions seem to fit three general categories:

Re-use of material from an earlier article

Empirical results that contradict an earlier result (e.g. by omitting a variable that was significant in an earlier paper)

Other statistical analysis problems, such as exaggerated or inconsistent statistical significance or R2 values (as in the Strategic Organization and Research Policyretractions)

All but the latter problem are associated with the second or subsequent publication from the same text or data. As such, the first (or first few) articles from a given series would not have such problems and are unlikely to ever be retracted.

However, if there are general statistical problems, those could apply to one or more of the other 22 21 articles. Six of the articles seem unlikely to be retracted for any reason because they are literature reviews without statistical analysis, and because they seem significantly different from each other:

How does this impact what papers to cite? Some remain oblivious to the whole scandal. This seems unlikely for board members of one of the five impacted journals, but might be possible at other journals or by scholars who are not active in innovation research (and don’t read the Retraction Watch or Open Innovation weblogs.)

In the end, individual scholars will make their own decisions. Some will refuse to cite any of Licthenthaler’s work, assuming it all to be tainted. Others will presume him innocent until proven guilty, citing any unretracted paper. Others seem to be taking an intermediate position: avoiding citing most of work, but giving credit for unique ideas not yet published by any other scholars.